New Glasses...

I took an early morning drive today to beautiful Owasso, Oklahoma… about ten minutes away!  The reason for such an exciting adventure was to pick up my new glasses.  With everything that’s been going on in my life, it was probably a good three years since I had my eyes checked.  The last time I went was back in Morrisville, North Carolina when Piper was still with us. 

So, as I am trying to step back into some semblance of a normal life again, I thought that getting my eyes checked and a new pair glasses would be another positive step in that direction!  My eyesight hadn’t changed that much, but I do notice that everything is a lot clearer now with the new glasses.  Therefore, I guess that I done good! 

When I got back out to my car after picking up the new spectacles, I spent a few moments comparing the strength and clarity of the new pair against my North Carolina clear set as well as with my prescription sunglasses.  It was a little funny to notice how the increased ability to focus on whatever subject I was observing with the new glasses over the old, gave me a noticeable peace of mind and contentment!  I also realized that I was unconsciously EXPECTING to see better with the new glasses… (I’m thinking that a cost of $1173.00… before insurance kicked in… might also have had something to do with that expectancy!)

That EXPECTATION reminded me of my morning Bible Study where I ended up studying from the book of Psalms in chapter 119, verse 114 where the author wrote of the Lord, “You are my hiding place and my shield. My EXPECTATION is based on your word.” (God’s Word ©)  According to this, we Christians should also have some pre-established EXPECTATIONS in life… and in our case, those EXPECTATIONS should be crafted by our knowledge of the truth of God’s Word.

The Apostolic Bible Polyglot puts an interesting spin on this verse by declaring, “You are my helper and my shielder, by your words, I raised (my) hope.”  In the Greek, the phrase “I raised my hope” implies the idea of “to stretch oneself or to reach forward.”  So, you can see how the author of this psalm was telling us of the Word’s ability or inherent power to cause us to raise our hopes or expectations... to stretch ourselves above and beyond our personal comfort zones.  To EXPECT more of and through God in the daily course of our lives.  To dream and imagine BIG, to ask Big requests of Him and to do BIG things for Him!

The Message Bible encourages us to say of the Lord that “You're my place of quiet retreat; I wait for your Word to renew me.”  This rendering infers two things.  First that we have to make and take the time to get quiet before the Lord on a regular basis and secondly, to do so with the EXPECTION that He will renew and refresh us when we meet with Him.

I learned from my cute high school girlfriend (who later became my wife) early in our budding relationship, that the Word of God was her “place of quiet retreat” and personal place of renewal for her life.  It was one of the many personal convictions that she lived before me, that also became an active trend in my life as well. 

I took up the personal habit of keeping my daily Bible Study notes in the same book that I used for my meeting notes in my secular jobs throughout the years.  This way I had the quick availability of catching a moment of refreshing from my notes taken from the Word of God, throughout the day, to recharge me in the midst of whatever activity or trauma was unfolding at any particular moment!

And you know… I still do that today by taking my notebook with me whenever I go somewhere in the car and/or keeping it opened on my desk throughout the day for a quick pick-me-up!

So, just as my new glasses have helped me to have a clearer focus on life around me, so does my regular quick stops in my “place of quiet retreat” within the Word of God!  I am not sure if someone might call that “fanatical” on my behalf or not… but what I DO know is that it sure works for me!  Give it a try… if it’s not already a practice in your life!

I don’t want to live a sedentary life where I am not forced to stretch myself on a regular basis.  I enjoy learning, growing and doing bigger and better things for the Lord… How about you?

Have a good week… stay warm and dry (we had some snow this morning and its still quite chilly outside!) and keep EXPECTING BIG things of the Lord!